MIRATIVITY QUESTION

[Noel Rude]

Greetings,

        There is in Sahaptian (a family of NW American Indian lgs. that
comprises Nez Perce and Sahaptin) a morpheme whose basic meaning seems
to be ÔsuddenlyÕ.  It is definitely grammaticalized (occupying a
specific morphological slot as verbal prefix) and is very productive.
Yesterday when I described your query to a native Sahaptin speaker, he
immediately came up with examples which contained this prefix, e.g.

1       i-tqA-tiyan-a
        3NOM-suddenly-laugh-PST
        Ôhe/she burst out laughingÕ (Sahaptin)

where tqA- connotes surprise, Ôlaughed out of placeÕ, etc.  In the
following from a recorded text Ôthe boyÕ is unexpectedly left alone by
his grandmother.  In the second clause we see another sense of tqA-,
i.e. nonvolitionality.

2       ku awkU i-tqA-waC-a Aswan p at lk-=sA=s at m=kÕa
        and then 3NOM-suddenly-be-PST boy 3SG.NOM=alone=only=even
        Ôand then the boy was suddenly/surprisingly all aloneÕ

        ku i-tqA-tkÕwanin-Xan-a
        and 3NOM-suddenly-walk.about-HAB-PST
        Ôand he would walk about aimlesslyÕ (Sahaptin)

Verbs in Sahaptin are inherently transitive or intransitive and this
fact can only be altered by valency changing morphology.  Though not the
case in every occurrence, tqA- can reduce valency, e.g. tamAnuun Ôthrow
into waterÕ, tqAtamanuun Ôfall into waterÕ.

        Another instance of mirativity, I believe, is provided by external
possession (possessor ascension).  Whereas EP is (certainly in
Sahaptian) very much a discourse related phenomenon, it also marks
emotional involvement.  This is illustrated by the clauses in (3) which
were provided by one woman for whom emotional involvement was definitely
a factor.  The relevant EP morphology are the 2nd position pronominals
=aS/=S and the applicative suffix -ay.  Without such emotional
involvement the alternative without external possession in (4) would be
perfectly grammatical.

3       wiyAnawi-ta=aS pAp nAXS-pa paCwAywit-pa
        arrive-FUT=1SG daughter one-LOC Sunday-LOC
        Ômy daughter will arrive on a SundayÕ

        ku=S i-nACik-ay-ta tIla
        and=1SG 3NOM-bring-APPL-FUT daughterÕs.child
        Ôand she will bring my grandchildÕ (Sahaptin)

4       i-wiyAnawi-ta pAp nAXS-pa paCwAywit-pa
        3NOM-arrive-FUT daughter one-LOC Sunday-LOC
        Ômy daughter will arrive on a SundayÕ

        ku i-nACik-ta In-tila-an
        and 3NOM-bring-FUT my-daughterÕs.child-ACC
        Ôand she will bring my grandchildÕ (Sahaptin)

Thus you have from Sahaptin two aspects of ÒmirativityÓ: surprise
(related to ÔsuddenlyÕ and ÔuncausedÕ) and emotional involvement (with
connections to a discourse mechanism).

Key to orthography:

A = a with acute accent
I = i with acute accent
U = u with acute accent
C = c-wedge
S = s-wedge
@ = barred i
X = x with dot below

Noel Rude